


An Assassin, A Baratheon, A Baby, and a Witch

by crystalkei



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, F/M, arya swallowed a basketball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 16:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18855172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: Arya never came home after Kings Landing fell but Gendry waited for her. When she showed up, she wasn't exactly alone.





	An Assassin, A Baratheon, A Baby, and a Witch

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, this is pretty much the thing I'm not usually doing. I'm not into pregnancy fic or kid fic. Except apparently when I write it and toss all rules and maybe characterization and anyways uhhhhh enjoy, kids.

It had been months. 

Winter was still raging but Gendry was just starting to get used to it, not having to constantly stand in front of the fires of the forge or the castle to be comfortable. His hammer dropped onto the chest plate, the clang of it meant he missed the rise of the commotion but the people running gave him pause.

“Where ya going?” he asked a passing kid. 

“Somebody said they found Lady Arya,” the kid shouted without slowing down. 

“Arya?” he barely whispered it, his mind racing.

“She’s hurt,” he heard the boy say, the words floated across the air and Gendry dropped his hammer and the hot armor so fast he nearly started a fire. But that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

“Get out of my way!” He pushed through the growing crowd, feeling like each person was purposely trying to slow him down, keep him from her, every step he took his feet felt like lead and the air too thick to breathe. 

Someone was guiding a white horse through the gates, on the horse’s back, slung haphazardly over it, was Arya’s body. Gendry couldn’t understand why the man leading the horse wouldn’t have just carried her in, gods, she weighed less than a large bag of flour. How far had he come with that horse and Arya like that? Where had she been? How long had she been unconscious? 

“I just found her out there, pale as can be,” the man who’d led the horse told someone in the crowd. 

Gendry broke through the people and was next to the horse, lifting Arya awkwardly off it as best he could.    
  
“What’re you doing? We’ve got to get her to the maester!” the man shouted.   
  
He reached for Gendry’s shoulder but he dodged it. He cradled Arya to his chest, his arms under her knees and her back. “You’re breathing, yeah, Arya?” He felt her breath hot on his neck and took comfort in that but she didn’t respond, her body was limp and burning up. 

“Get Lady Stark, get the maester, I’m taking her to her room!” Gendry threw over his shoulder at whoever would listen. “Arya, wake up, please.” 

He felt better holding her but that comfort was quickly replaced by the fact that she wasn’t waking up. She was feverish but beyond that he didn’t know what could have caused her to pass out like this. Gendry could stop bleeding, he could stitch up wounds (though poorly but she’d showed him how before) but he couldn’t decipher what had happened to her and how to fix this. 

“They’ve gone to fetch the maester, he’s out,” Sansa explained when she met him at Arya’s room.   
  
Gendry laid Arya gently on her bed and then started stripping off her clothes, coat first.

“You should let me do that!” Sansa was shrill. “She wouldn’t want you to see her-”

“I’m usually very respectful of what Arya wants but now is not the time, she’s burning up with fever and we’ve got to make sure she’s not bleeding somewhere,” he snapped. 

There was no point in trying to be formal but Sansa did not approve of the explanation. He didn’t see her face but he could hear her huff as he unlaced Arya’s tunic. Sansa took her huffy self down to Arya’s boots, pulling them off. As he reached for Arya’s small clothes Sansa gasped. 

“Gendry!” 

“This is not the best time to let you know but I’ve seen it all,” he said without thinking until he too gasped. 

Arya’s belly was round. 

“So if you’ve seen it all, then you did this to her?” Sansa stood with her hand on her hip but he didn’t notice, he was too busy staring in shock. 

Gendry’s stomach flipped before he turned back to Sansa, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish. “Maybe? It’s been months,” he stuttered. “Maybe six, what does a six month belly look like?”

“I don’t know!” 

“You’re a girl, don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t know! Anymore than I would know how you make armor!”   
  
Arya groaned, the first noise she’d made since Gendry pulled her off the horse and he shifted all attention to her, reaching for her face, hoping she’d wake up. She was still warm, but her skin was clammy now. 

“Arya,” he tried, “Arya, wake up.” 

But nothing changed. 

“We have to get her fever down,” Sansa said. “She must have been riding home, her fever spiked, and she passed out. It’s not unheard of, mother said it happened to Robb once when he was small.”

It felt private to hear about Starks that were gone now. Arya talked about her mother when they were on the road to the Wall, and she always talked about Robb. But since she’d come back to Winterfell, there was no time to talk about family that was gone. They were too busy trying to survive. 

“What should we do?” he asked, not taking his hand off Arya’s face, hoping maybe she’d respond. 

Sansa looked around the room before she bolted out of it. Gendry turned back to Arya.

He moved his hand towards her belly but stopped short. If it was his, why didn’t she come back to him as soon as she knew? She’d turned him down though, maybe she really didn’t want anything to do with him. He’d rationalized her leaving for King’s Landing as part of her list. Gendry knew she kept her list and he knew how much Arya wanted to kill Cersei. But she didn't  come back. He waited months. Jon came back from King’s Landing without the armies he left with and made a quick stop before heading back to the wall to oversee it’s reconstruction. Cersei and Ser Jaime had died but no one knew how. The Hound was dead. Jon had mentioned that Arya was alive but he didn’t know where she’d gone after. 

It must have been someone else who’d done this to her. That’s why she hadn’t come to find him. But none of it mattered at the moment because she was still not awake and the longer she was out, the more he worried. Would she die? He couldn’t bear the thought. 

Sansa busted back into the room with a bucket and tossed it on Arya’s face, Gendry jumped up as water hit him, too. 

“Hey!” Gendry glared at Sansa. “Why would you do that to your sister?”

“For you she hung the moon but for me she’s my bratty sister who needs to wake up from fever so be mad all you want but look.” Sansa wiped Arya’s face, and he watched her eyes open. “It worked.” 

“Sansa!” Arya breathed out, it was sharp but it wasn’t loud. “Why does it smell like Gendry in here?” 

“I’m right here,” he sat on the bed next to her, despite the small puddle that had formed because of the water, and took her hand. 

Arya shook her head to clear it, she tried to sit up but she didn’t get far before giving up. She closed her eyes again and tried to take a deep breath but it turned into a cough. 

“I’m freezing.” Before she finished Gendry and Sansa both were pulling furs over her. 

“What happened, Arya?” Sansa asked. 

“I’m hungry,” Arya ignored Sansa’s question. She gripped Gendry’s hand tighter before seeming to fully wake up. “Gendry? For fuck’s sake, what are you doing here? Where am I?”

She sounded mad and Gendry tried to ignore the pang of hurt. Arya didn’t want him. Still. He would have gotten up and left right there but she was clenching his hand so tightly now. 

“Do you want him to leave?” 

Arya turned to Sansa, lessening her grip on Gendry. “Yes!” 

Gendry started to pull his hand from hers but she held tighter again. “No!” She paused and looked back at him, her eyes soft. “I don’t know.”

“Arya, the baby,” Sansa kept talking and Gendry was relieved for it because he didn’t know if he could say anything without cracking at the rejection. Again. 

“Shit.”

“I’ll go,” Gendry offered but she didn’t let loose his hand. 

“No, stay.” 

“Arya, is the baby…” Sansa was desperate for information. 

“Do you think I just open my legs for anyone?” There was the Arya everyone knew. “It’s his, how dare you think otherwise!”

“I didn’t know you and he had,” Sansa held out her arm, gesturing to both of them back and forth. “Until just a few minutes ago so how was I supposed to assume anything?”

Arya tried to sit up again, irritated, at least she was coming back to herself. Gendry helped her to sit up and helped her into the shirt he’d taken off earlier. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter?” Arya turned to him. “You think like her? Like I just drop my breeches all the time? You know it was just you. I told you!”    
  
“You told me six months ago, I don’t know what happened between now and then!” 

“You’re so stupid,” Arya said, shaking her head. “What are you even doing here? I went to Storm’s End and you’ve been here, in Winterfell the whole time?”

She smacked his shoulder but she was still weak. 

“I was waiting for you!” 

“Waiting for me? I told you I didn’t to marry you and you stayed here?”

“You told me you weren’t a lady and I knew you wanted to kill Cersei for your stupid list so I hoped you’d come back when you were done and-”

“I’m gonna go get Arya some food and see where the maester is,” Sansa cut in. 

“My list wasn’t stupid!” Arya kept on. “And besides, I abandoned it. I wanted to come back to you!” 

“Come back to me? It’s been six months! What took so long?” Gendry realized that through all of this, she still hadn’t let go of his hand, even if she had used her other to smack him a couple times. 

“I told you! I went to Storm’s End first!” 

“Why didn’t you send a raven?” 

“You want this news,” she reached for her belly for emphasis, “Via raven? You’d have fainted and fallen into the fire and then where would we be?”

“I wouldn’t have fainted.” Gendry rolled his eyes, but Arya moved the hand she was holding to her belly, forcing him to touch his new reality. “Are you trying to make me faint because it won’t work…”

He trailed off though. 

“You might,” she said, a wicked smile.

“I’m sorry I did this to you.”

“I’m not mad. Well, I was for a minute. It would figure I fuck one time and then-”   
  
“It was one night, not one time,” he said, giving her a half smile. 

“A moment ago you were apologizing for making me fat, now you’re being lewd?”

“Sorry,” he said, sheepishly. “What changed your mind?”

“You know Sansa used to be so desperate to marry that dickhead, Joffrey, can you believe?” She was staring at the fire, not looking at him, but she still had his hand, her thumb working over his. “It was before we knew any better. Before we knew how cruel he was. Before he killed our father, obviously. I didn’t understand her, wanting to get married. It seemed like a prison to me.” 

Gendry looked away, embarrassed. He didn’t see marriage that way but no wonder she’d turned him down if that’s how she felt about being married. “You don’t have to marry me.” 

She looked at him now, her brows drawing tight and down. “I want to. I lost so much of my family but I gained you. When my family wasn’t around, when I didn’t know who was alive and who was dead, there was you. I didn’t understand the idea of wanting to add to my family until you.” 

A lump formed in Gendry’s throat, she was never so direct, they didn’t seem to know how to actually speak in each other’s language, even if they’d been speaking (or fighting) for years. But he knew what she’d said was huge. Arya squeezed his hand, bringing his attention back to her. 

“Also there was a witch.” 

“Excuse me?” The quick turn caused him to let out a laugh.

“You heard me, a witch.” 

“That doesn’t usually go well for me.” He stretched his palm over her stomach gently, focusing on her stomach and what was going on in there. A child. Their family. 

“The witch said,” Arya started.

“You’re serious, a witch?”

“Yes, I was traveling here and-” 

“Maybe that’s why you got the fever?”

“I got the fever because I haven’t had a proper meal in a week and I haven’t slept soundly in double that,” Arya explained. 

“Sansa is coming with food and then you can rest. I’ll go back to work and you can rest. You should rest now.” While they were fighting and then when he’d had the shock of her carrying a child, he’d forgotten that she was close to dead. 

“Let me finish talking, I’m tired and I’m hungry, but let me tell you about the witch.” It was a whine, like something she would have done when they were younger and it was his most favorite thing of the last hour. 

“Tell me about the witch.”

“I stumbled on her, really, she was on the road, needed some help, frail and cripple, I let her sit on the horse for a mile or two.” 

“Where’d you get the horse?” he asked, pulling a pillow up behind her so she could sit more comfortably. The color was returning to her face and her skin didn’t feel clammy anymore. The fever was at bay for now. 

“I’m talking about the witch, can you please stay focused?” 

Gone for months, almost dead, pregnant, there were certainly other things he’d rather talk about but he didn’t think it wise to say so. He leaned over and kissed her because he wanted to. She was here and he’d waited ages to see her again and she still wanted him and something about all of it didn’t seem real until he’d felt her lips on his. 

Arya held his face as he tried to pull away. She deepened the kiss, stealing his breath and pulling him closer. She bit his bottom lip gently and he groaned.

“That’s what you get for not paying attention to me,” she whispered, her lips so close they were almost still kissing. 

“I accept my punishment as you dole it out, m’lady.” He smiled and she smacked him again. 

“So the witch,” Arya repeated.

“Go on then.” 

“I’ve got cheese and bread and some soup,” Sansa listed off as she came in with a heavy tray. 

Gendry thought Arya might burst at the interruption but she was clearly starving, reaching for anything Sansa would give her off the plate. She took the bread and bit into it, her eyes closing and her shoulders slumping, reveling in the taste. 

“The witch said I’m having a girl,” Arya said, mouth full, apparently unable to contain the news. 

“What?” Sansa asked, confused. “A witch?” She looked to Gendry but he just shrugged. 

“Witches aren’t exactly reliable but tell me more about this,” he said, passing her a cup of water. 

Sansa sat in the chair near the fire and looked on skeptically. 

“I helped her and when we parted she put her hand on my belly and said it was a girl.” 

“She’s got half chance she’s right, hardly something to believe,” Sansa said. 

“I wasn’t showing, this was months ago, you couldn’t tell under my coat or anything.” Arya narrowed her eyes at Sansa, but turned back to Gendry. 

“She said she’d be a fighter, but she’d be kind and smart,” Arya said. “And the witch said we’d live long enough to see her grow old.” 

“That’s a lovely story, Arya, but-” Gendry was cut off quickly. 

“A wolf mother and a bullheaded father gives her a long life and you’ll see it all. See your grandchildren born. That’s exactly what she said, she used those words. How could she have known?”

Sansa stood up. “I’m glad you’re back, even under these circumstances. I’m going to leave you two to talk and find out what’s taking the maester so long. Gendry will you shout if something changes?” 

“I’ll shout myself, Sansa,” Arya snapped, but Sansa just smiled.

“I missed you, too,” Sansa said before leaving. Arya rolled her eyes but Gendry could tell she was happy to have her sister fuss over her. 

“I missed you,” Gendry offered. 

Arya pushed her hair behind her ear. “You don’t believe me about the witch.”

“I know that your parents being killed is one of the heaviest things you carry with you and if the witch made you feel better about a child then I’m happy,” he explained. “I want to be around for you and anyone else that joins this family.”

“I still won’t be a lady.” 

“I know.”

“I want her to grow up here, around my family, learn how to shoot a bow in the courtyard like I did, learn how to fight from someone like Ser Brienne, run the halls like I did when I was a child.” She scoot closer to him, putting a hand on his chest. “I want her to learn from you how to forge her own weapon.”

“Are those the terms then? That’s what I’m to agree to to marry you?”

“Five minutes as a Lord and you think you can negotiate?” She leaned in and kissed the side of his lips. 

“It’s been six months but I’ve done nothing to learn" Gendry kissed her forehead. "I just want you.” 

“Fine, I give in. Let’s go to the Godswood now.” Arya swung her feet towards the side of the bed but Gendry put her legs right back where they should be. 

“Are you planning on changing your mind? Because you’re still sick and I think you should rest first, unless you’re going to change your mind, if that’s the case I’ll carry you out there right now.” He kissed her, soft and slow. 

“Maester Marshall is here, finally,” Sansa said, interrupting them. 

Gendry pulled back but Arya tugged on his hand again. “Stay with me,” she said. 

 

\-- 

 

In three and a half months, Arya gave birth to a daughter. No one ever mocked the idea of Arya believing the witch again. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I went back and forth one the dumb witch bit all week so if you hated that, tell me now so I can know the next time I think, "You know what'd be fun? A witch!" If you hated anything else, don't tell me, just walk away and we'll pretend this never happened.


End file.
